Wage dispute between NJ Transit and train drivers’ union could lead to strike or lockout in July

NJ Transit’s unionized train drivers could go on strike or be locked out of the company. The National Mediation Board said Tuesday it had released both sides from further mandatory collective bargaining and initiated a 30-day “cooling-off period.”

This means that commuter trains connecting New Jersey and New York could cease service as early as July 25, said the conciliation committee that regulates labor relations in the railroad and aviation sectors.

President Joe Biden can appoint an emergency presidential panel to intervene in the bitter contract dispute and delay a work stoppage for another 120 days while the panel gathers facts and recommends an agreement.

NJ Transit and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have been in mediation talks for three years, and the train drivers have been working without a contract since October 2019.

“Our members are angry and feel betrayed,” said Eddie Hall, national president of BLET. “The train drivers have kept the trains running during the pandemic (and) have not had a pay rise for five years during a period of high inflation. … They have had enough.”

The union is demanding that NJ Transit raise the pay of its train drivers to bring them in line with the salaries of their colleagues at other commuter railroads in the Northeast.

“We are extremely disappointed,” the transit agency said in a statement. “NJ Transit has and will continue to negotiate in good faith that … fairly and to the best of its ability represents hundreds of thousands of customers and the taxpayers of New Jersey given our well-known fiscal realities.”

The agency says it faces a $118 million budget deficit in 2025 and projects a $917 million deficit in 2026. Under a plan adopted by the NJ Transit Board, fares are set to rise 15% starting July 1 and 3% each year thereafter.

NJ Transit said in the statement that BLET, which represents 494 train drivers, was the only one of 15 railroad unions that did not accept what the agency said was a fair contract offer.

Last August, train drivers unanimously gave Hill permission to call a strike. But because disruptions to rail service affect interstate commerce, federal law requires a lengthy, multi-stage process before workers can strike or employers can lock out their employees.

NMB decided to withdraw on Monday after the engineers’ union rejected an offer for binding arbitration.

The union, NJT or the governor of a state affected by a pause can ask Biden to convene an emergency panel. NJT and the union could also reach an agreement before the July deadline.

In December 2022, Congress blocked a strike by 115,000 railroad workers and forced them to accept a five-year contract that included 24% raises and $5,000 bonuses but ignored their biggest problem: burdensome labor regulations.

The deal was negotiated by a presidential emergency committee created by the White House under the Railroad Labor Act. Biden and congressional leaders said they acted because disrupting freight traffic would have hurt the economy.